Acetone is both miscible with water and can be used to displace water. Due to its high vapor pressure, the evaporation of acetone is useful for removing the residual water in a feedstock, e.g., a biomaterial, geologic or carbonaceous material, waste-water. Similarly, acetone is used to facilitate drying of glassware in chemistry, biochemistry, and biotechnology laboratories.
Acetone drying is used at laboratory scale due to the rapid action of the acetone and the insignificant cost of due to loss of acetone. Acetone drying techniques, as applied in a chemistry laboratory setting, have not been used at large scale due to the prohibitively large volatile organic compound emissions, consequent environmental concerns and costs associated with acetone loss.
Thermal drying techniques have been preferred over acetone drying techniques. This is because the most conventional embodiment of an acetone drying method at commercial scale would require distillation to separate the acetone from the water. The capital and operating expenses of such a facility are higher than those for a conventional spray drying and drum drying, two of the most-efficient methods for thermal drying materials. Because of the lack of operational expense advantage, solvent drying with acetone has not been employed at large scale.